Albums to watch

Hotel Usona

Protomartyr

Hotel Usona

Seventh album from the Detroit post-punk quartet produced by Dave Fridmann

ADM rating[?]

8.3

Label
Domino
UK Release date
25/09/2026
US Release date
25/09/2026
  1. 9.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Under dim hotel lights, Casey’s lyricism appears foreboding and alien in a way it never has before
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  2. 9.0 |   Uncut

    This is not a hotel you'd want to stay at any time soon, but it's a remarkable record to spend time with. Print edition only

  3. 9.0 |   Far Out

    It’s a bleak listen, sure, but Protomartyr haven’t ever been the comforting types. In fact, they’ve chosen the perfect time to double down on their righteous anger and despair, and if everything were to come to a catastrophic end right now, you’ve got the perfect soundtrack for it
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  4. 9.0 |   All Music

    Hotel Usona is a stunning merger of form and content, and a State of the Union address as important as it is fiery
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  5. 9.0 |   Spectrum Culture

    Hotel Usona is the perfect accompaniment for Protomartyr's dark themes. It's a calculated mess, grandiose pomp in squalid decay, a steely examination of the modern moment
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  6. 8.5 |   No Ripcord

    Protomartyr's different releases exhibit varying degrees of sombreness. While Hotel Usona can feel unifying in its purpose, detailing the frightening conditions of a nation, it also presents them in strange, deeply uncomfortable ways. It’s the Lost Highway of David Lynch films, one might say
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  7. 8.3 |   Paste Magazine

    From singer Joe Casey’s handmade album artwork to drummer Alex Leonard’s impish, kinetic inversions of classic post-punk rhythm, the Detroit band crafts an austere, unflinching record as bleak as it is cathartic
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  8. 8.1 |   Northern Transmissions

    The album is more eerie in tone than its predecessors, like a distant alarm sounding, trying to amplify the sounds we cannot hear
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  9. 8.0 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    It is undoubtedly the most mature collection of songs the band released yet and that excitement that appears every time they announce a new LP paid off once more
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  10. 8.0 |   Exclaim

    For newcomers, it's a perfectly moody entry point. Hotel Usona is the sound of a band settling into their own skin, creating a space that's uniquely theirs and generously sharing the key
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  11. 7.9 |   Beats Per Minute

    Over these nine songs, Protomartyr again nudge the sonic boundaries of post-punk, all the while confronting sublime emotional states and urgent sociocultural issues
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  12. 7.4 |   Pitchfork

    You can check out but you’ll never leave the Detroit post-punks’ new concept album, which grimly parodies the United States’ ugliest realities as odious guests at a cursed hotel
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